Rocco Arico has just commenced a 14 year jail sentence. Arico, a member of the Calabrian mafia, ‘Ndrangheta, and a person of note in Melbourne’s bloody gangland wars, has more than his jail sentence to worry about.
Arico, 38, known as ‘Rocky’ to his friends and criminal associates, came to Australia with his parents as a young child. He married here and has children but he is a resident, not an Australian citizen. When his jail term ends, Arico will almost certainly be bundled off to Tullamarine Airport and put on a plane back to Italy, deported on character grounds.
Late last year Arico was convicted of extortion, intentionally causing injury and trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine. Details of his conviction were suppressed by the courts while he faced firearms and further drug charges.
Arico first came to my attention when I was making a documentary on the life of one of his associates, Dino Dibra. Dibra was a member of the Sunshine Boys, a gang of young villains most of whom became casualties in Melbourne’s underworld bullet fest. Founding members Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin, Paul Kalipolitis and Mark Mallia are all dead. Dibra was slain in a hail of bullets outside one of his safe houses in Sunshine in Melbourne’s west in October 2000. One of the two shooters was Veniamin.
Full column here.
Blues v Tigers tonight, don’t forget to tip
If you haven’t yet you’ve missed out on the first game. The Tiges should be too good for the Blues here. Carlton have Tommo Petrovski-Seton among others debuting. He looks a very likely type. Dusty Martin seems to have found another level.
Being a bit controversial here – but I don’t fancy the chances of Andrews being reelected – couple of power failures after the closure of Hazelwood could be the nail in the coffin for him. Not to mention the government rorting of allowances.
He seems confident he can get power from Tasmania and the Snowy. I hope we charge him double this time. Could be a moneyspinner. However I think Tashydro may be more prudent in the usage of water reserves in future.
I cannot for the life of me work out why they are shutting down these power sources without adequate proven replacements ready to go. Back to third world load shedding. …
courting green votes
Hazelwood closure a shocker imho Boadicea . FGS we need all the Power generating capabilities we can muster. Poor SA , the Blackout State, should reconsider Coal too! I have a lovely lump of coal sitting on my home office desk, gorgeous it is. Cheers
What the hell would Bill McKibben know? But some of us have to try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdkZVyKtZRo
Hey Boadcea, did you see Bob’s back & he’s taking out the trash!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/22/former-greens-leader-bob-brown-to-launch-coalition-to-oppose-adani-coalmine
Bob’s Stop Adani Alliance is drawing comparisons with the Franklin River dam campaign he led in Tassie.
He’s definitely a man on a mission but to the credit of Ian & Greg Chappell, they personally delivered an open letter to Adani in India calling on them to abandon its coal plan for Australia.
Kudos to the three of them from this gal.
Regards, Bella
How much did he have to pay up for cancelling that road contract – $1billion ?
That appears not to have affected his vote so I guess the odd power shortage will not either.
The contract should never have been signed by the Vic. coalition in the first place. Infrastructure Australia did not rate the project worthy. The Federal coalition funding has also been criticised by the auditor general. Facts man try and find some.
Everyone I speak to who lives in Victoria cannot stand the man, JS.
He also presided over the volunteer firefighters against the unions issue too.
Try driving across Melbourne in peakhour. Practically gridlock. That EW link should have been built. It was folly to cancel it.
It’s one disaster after the other – and we haven’t got to power issues yet…….
So Shorten wants to include English and Irish as a race along with gender, age etc etc.
So why is “Australian” not included in the list. Their are many people in this country who do not care were their ancestors came from, see themselves as Australian and from time to time cop an extraordinary amount of rubbish from immigrant bosses.
The multi-cultural tail is starting to wag the majority and I see push back starting where I have not seen before,
Time to ease off and consolidate.
The new leader of the ACTU is going to be an asset to the Libs at the next election.
Should be “there” and “where” – getting sloppy
Ideological zealots generally are.
RE: Jean Baptiste says:
March 23, 2017 at 5:27 am
JB,
I’ll see your articles 1 to 3 and raise you a 0.75!!
I know my rights, you can’t touch me ……………………………………………….. !!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34cuiq_strawbs-you-don-t-get-me-i-m-part-of-the-union_fun
My dear PLMO, how very kind of you to link to that splendid song. I was remiss in my previous, not acknowledging the genius in your manifesto, providing a practical example within each of the transgressions you list.
As a small gesture of appreciation, please enjoy this outstanding performance and it’s recommendation for wholesome Christworthy interfacing.
Please counsel young Milton against viewing it, it would be bound to overstimulate him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZnmTiqEikg
Not quite stealing ice cream from a baby but I think he will find times have changed when he gets back to the old country, this from The Times sorry had to cut and paste because it’s behind the paywall.
”Mafia killers who grew rich thanks to drugs, extortion and prostitution are carving out lucrative new business empires in the export and production of Italian foods.
Crime syndicates boosted their investment in Italy’s food sector by 30 per cent last year to reach €21.8 billion, according to an assessment by Coldiretti, the farming lobby group.
As clans carve up food sectors such as oranges, olive oil and mozzarella between them, the risk of mob-tainted food arriving in British supermarkets is increasing, said Roberto Moncalvo, the head of the group.
“This is a business which goes beyond borders, with mafia marketed products heading for Europe,” he said.
The racket involves some of the mafia’s most notorious figures, including Matteo Messina Denaro, a fugitive Sicilian godfather wanted for 50 murders who is allegedly now making a fortune investing in the finest Sicilian olive oil producers.
The list of clans involved in the business reads like a mafia Who’s Who.
In February, police arrested Walter Schiavone, son of a noted boss of the Naples Camorra, accusing him of controlling the production and sale of prized buffalo mozzarella in the Campania region.
Further south in Calabria, the Piromalli clan — part of the feared ’Ndrangheta mafia — was allegedly behind the export to major US shops of oil labelled as extra virgin, which was actually poor quality oil made from the residue of oil produced in the Middle East.”
Don Corleone would be thrilled olive oil is back on the menu
I doubt Poor Quality Virgin would be an easy olive oil to market. But you just never know.
On other matters: did you hear about the Irishman, named Paddy, sitting next to a Muslim chap on a flight. The air hostess first asked Paddy if he’d like a drink, to which he replied yes, i’ll have a whisky. After that was served the Muslim was asked if he’d like a drink, to which he replied, i’d prefer to be sexually violated by a 100 whores than to have alcohol touch my lips. On hearing that Paddy pushed back his drink and said I didn’t know we had a choice!
Off to a flying start in the Gryzly. 28 out of 29.
Not necessarily poor quality Milt but what’s in it. Don’t know if you remember this from the 80’s the Spanish have certainly never forgotten it https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/aug/25/research.highereducation
Prohibition, removing from the citizens the right to put down their throats or inject into their bloodstream whatever they please has outcomes. Just like the roaring twenties.
I was commiserating with a guy I knew thirty years ago, just released after doing a year in the slammer for being caught with 15 kg’s of his crop in the back of his station wagon.
I said it was outrageous that we should be jailing people for cannabis use.
He agreed.
I asserted that marijuana used should be legalised.
He offered to punch my head in.
And,
Lots of cops and prisons means lots of power and money.
Hey lady, there’s a good thing going down here, everybody got good jobs, everybody make a lot of spondulicks, don’t you rock the boat, you don’t want no trouble.
Crime of a different kind overnight in London, Mr Insider, re the Terrorist attack killing 4 and 20 injured so far. Extensive coverage in the UL Mail Online , linked.
http://tinyurl.com/ltup7m9
need to invade somewhere …that will fix teh thing
Yes Henry, a lone wolf jihadist idiot went crazy in London and killed 4 people. 8 or so hours previously a US led coalition airstrike killed 33 civilians when they bombed a school in Syria The school was located between two cities in northern Syria — Raqqa and Tabqa — that are currently controlled by ISIS. “We can now confirm that 33 people were killed, and they were displaced civilians from [Raqqa], Aleppo and Homs. Only two people were pulled out alive,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Please tell me who the real terrorists are and why do we only read about the London incident in the MSM
One act was clearly deliberate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
I’m just trying to think who actually directly and indirectly funds ISIS? Um, let me think now……….
Give ’em heaps serhenry.
Serhenry, very good point. Should also add that the lone wolf jihadi idiot was born in Britain and whose name was not originally Khalid Mahmood. It was a despicable act.
But I’m at a loss as to why the same type of act in Melbourne by another crazed guy was not considered terrorism and yet this was. On my newsfeed this morning I noted that an ex NT CLP politician cited Katie Hopkins from The Daily Mail as making a good point about the benefits of living in a mono culture. God help us.
We all seem to conveniently forget that Britain, along with France Spain, Portugal etc. colonised many countries and expected the people to adapt to their “culture” and way of life. But that’s OK?
It is still all happening in Syria, but no-one cares, people are still displaced, but no-one cares.
And all our government can do is debate the finer points of 18c without really mentioning 18d.
On another point and then I’ll be quiet, has anyone noticed that all the airlines travelling to the US whose passengers are not allowed to bring their laptops into the cabins but must put them in as checked baggage are Middle East and North African airlines? You can travel from Dubai to LAX on United with your laptop by your side, but not Emirates…hmmm
Not sure about here but I think in the USA the mafia had a hand in Union activities, and standover tactics.
Here’s an article on the ACTU’s boss and cfmeu colleagues. These are the type of people that pull the labor parties strings.
Here, you forgot this son:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/new-union-chief-sally-mcmanus-has-a-problem-with-facts-20170319-gv1rn6.html
Actually it would save taxpayers a lot of coin if the crims (to be deported) were freed earlier (saving us the ridiculous cost of imprisonment) and we paid for a one way ticket on Garuda to their destination. I’ve read James Finch (whisky au go go) was paroled, subject to deportation.
I doubt Italy would have any legal right of refusal for Rocco, even though he may not have an Italian passport? Perhaps the job of foreign affairs type people to expedite all that.
Maybe a choice between a Rocco and a hard place. Hey, it’s no worse than the header!!
DIBP – possibly via DFAT, I’m not sure – will talk to the Italian embassy at the appropriate time to get him a travel document. There are not many countries we don’t have reciprocal return agreements with. The Iranians have always been difficult. And a mate of mine got caught up in an escorted return to Cuba that turned into a three-day round-the-world trip back to where they started, with their client.
Except for the messy and dangerous violence bit, and being very cowardly, I could see myself in the mafia. Good clothes, fine shoes, classy hookers, some respect, top coin,
sitting around in cafes/bars watching football, fine dining, the south of Italy and a whole lot more. Sounds like la dolce vita to me. And i’ll forgo the veal and try the sorbet!
Shiny shoes Milton.
Don’t forget the Canoles Milton! Never forget the Canoles.
Arico’s deportation will be a lottery, dependant on the vagaries of Immigration Department policy and who is sitting in the big chair in Canberra when his sentence is up.
It’s easy to forget now but the use of section 501 character visa cancellations all but ground to a halt in the latter part of John Howard’s term, torpedoed by a long series of court cases where cancellations were overturned. The word for a long time out of the legal branch was, “don’t bother”. As far as I can gather not much changed through the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period. It was only when Scott Morrison came to the portfolio with the strong backing of Tony Abbott that there was a renewed push for character cancellations and deportations. Under Peter Dutton this has increased I’m happy to say.
But that is a recent development. Ten or fourteen years from now the whole scene could have changed once again. I wouldn’t yet be putting money on this idiot being sent home.
You are talking more about elements of the character test that fall into ambiguity but where someone like Arico is concerned with a long history of violent offending, the rules are very clear.
my recollection is that TBLS is pretty much right, the AAT was hosing the government out and they had more or less given up the idea as bad joke, even in cases where there didn’t seem to be much ambiguity, at least to me.
The deportation of convicts who aren’t Australian citizens is not a John Howard idea, mate.
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib0203/03cib26
No, of course it wasn’t, nor was i saying it was.
rather, it was during howard’s time that the AAT was knocking them back, so they gave it up.
I misunderstood. Sorry. My point was political circumstances might change but I doubt it will do much for Arico’s chances.
He’ll probably be able to stay. Derryn Hinch is still here.
of course my memory may be incorrect, one of my mates was appearing for the commonwealth in some of those cases and it is a rare lawyer who doesn’t attribute a whole series of losses to judicial error.
No, I’m not. What I’m saying is that the rules (legislative and procedural) change according to the policy settings of the day. These are affected by legal challenges, external lobbying, electoral sentiment, media pressure and the philosophical leanings of the sitting government, all of which have an impact on government and ministerial priorities.
Right now we have an Immigration Minister who is all about getting rid of the sorts of people that the general public think we should get rid of – criminals who have been convicted of serious offences. He’s very energetic in that area. But previously we had a person who is recognised (outside the la-la-land of the so-called “progressives”) as probably our most competent Minister, Phillip Ruddock running the show and character cancellations and deportations became all but extinct under his watch. Not because he was no good at the job but because there was a very determined and sustained campaign of legal challenges that made the operation of s501, as it stood then, untenable.
The rules as they stand today, under this government in this political environment, would see Arico out on his ear with dispatch. But a decade is a very long time – especially in the immigration business – and I say again, I wouldn’t be placing a bet on his deportation just yet.
Personally I have a problem with people being deported without criminal convictions, TBLS. There are a number of cases around at the moment where the Min bases a decision on police intelligence. I don’t think that is sufficient. The character test is very open, ambiguous as I say and open to legal challenge.
Here is the Immigration Dept.’s Fact Sheet. Items 3 & 5 are real concerns in my view.
Sorry, mate, I think we’re talking past each other a bit. I’m not in disagreement with the idea that Arico should go. I’m a bit agnostic on the question of whether a conviction should be required for a character cancellation in all circumstances if intelligence agencies have credible information pertaining to national security.
Anyway, if the gods are kind and we’re both still about when dick-head gets to the end of his sentence, let’s revisit and see what happens.
We are a bit, TBLS. Rocco is doing 10 on the bottom as they say in crimland so it will take a while but a person of his substantial criminal background must go and I doubt there’d be a government silly enough to shirk it. Of course we could have a chat about Frank Madafferi, whose deportation will almost certainly become an issue a lot earlier. There was considerable work put into making Frank an Australian citizen. Here’s a bit of background. The pic shows his then lawyer, Joe Acquaro in the background. Acquaro was shot dead in Carlton last year. His murder remains unsolved.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/mafia-family-brother-frank-madafferi-faces-deportation/news-story/d9f475c34bfb460d42009d407caa89cf
JTI,
Understand your view on police intelligence and do not entirely disagree but when things are rated A1 on the admiralty scale and independently overviewed I think doportation should go ahead. A lot of work goes into this type of request. The question is would you like Mr Vella back from Malta?
Not a matter of what I want, mate. What are his antecedents? I’m saying the character test should be based on our legal processes. You’ll never be able to convince me cops or ministers don’t make mistakes.
this is where it gets tricky i think.
you can have strict and absolute rules, i.e., no conviction for serious offences or no deportation, and that leads to problems, or you leave some human discretion to Minister or the Courts or both, and that leads to problems as well.
Jack,
That’s the heart of it. No simple solutions to very complex problems.